Casting for Recovery newsletter – meet the team

The latest newsletter from the Casting for Recovery team has been circulated and can be read below. In this e-news we meet members of the team, reveal our plans for the future and meet our fundraising heroes, without whose support we couldn’t function. You can sign up for the newsletter here.

Welcome!

Welcome to the latest e-newsletter of Casting for Recovery UK & Ireland, the unique outdoor programme run by The Countryside Alliance Foundation that enables ladies with breast cancer to take part in the magical sport of fly fishing.

We have had a great start to 2017 with two retreats under our belt – one at the Coniston Hotel in North Yorkshire and one at the Mount Falcon Estate in Co Mayo. Both retreats were a huge success, underlining the therapeutic benefits of fly fishing and fun for ladies recovering from breast cancer – pictured is one of our ladies at Mount Falcon getting to grips with a toy trout ahead of meeting the real thing. Our next retreat, to be held at Kimbridge on the Test in July, will be our 40th, which is a true achievement and testament to everyone who has ever supported the programme.

Below you will find the thoughts of three of our top volunteers – Tina our counsellor, Lottie our breast nurse and from Vee our casting instructor. All three bring a compassion and joy to the programme that make every retreat they attend a supportive and positive experience. We will be hearing from some of our other volunteers in future newsletters.

I am also very pleased to report that Sue Shaw, founding director of Casting for Recovery, is now firmly ensconced, having begun a job with The Countryside Alliance Foundation in January in order to help us develop CfR and also support our Fishing 4 Schools initiative. More from Sue in a future issue.

Thanks for your continuing support, we hope to see you at a show this summer!

Vee Carlson (pictured) is a world-class fly casting coach, and she has joined top counsellor Tina Cooke and experienced nurse Lottie Weston in writing for the Countryside Alliance’s magazine on what it takes to put on the perfect retreat for our lady participants. Read the piece featuring Vee, Tina and Lottie here.

The retreat will be well supported by the Forbes family and their team, as in previous years, and has also been underwritten by the Scottish Rural Awards, who generously donated over £4,700.

We are planning to expand and take our programme to new venues, and have recently visited Garnffrwd Fishery in Carmarthenshire, where Sue Shaw (pictured) made sure things were up to snuff by having a cast! As we expand, it is encouraging to have strong support from the fly fishing community. Andy at Total Flyfisher Magazine, in tandem with Turrall’s Flies, recently sent us a selection of flies submitted to their national competition. In addition we are grateful to the Sussex Fly Dressers Guild for their recent £500 donation, and also to David Bellairs, a keen fly-tyer, who is keeping us well-stocked with his creations. Finally, our very own Charles Jardine recently ran the London Marathon again (for the third time) for The Countryside Alliance Foundation’s projects. Thanks to all, the fly fishing community has always been incredibly generous.

Casting for Recovery will be at four summer shows – come and see us! Click here.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in the debut retreat of CfR Italia in Tuscany over the weekend!

Casting for Recovery UK & Ireland is administered and run by The Countryside Alliance Foundation. The Countryside Alliance Foundation is a registered charity. Charity number: 1121034 Company number: 5669451